I have been watching the happenings of the financial world lately with the detached fascination usually reserved for horrible bus crashes. Unfortunately I am currently seated on the bus, Seated too far from the drivers to truly prevent the disaster if I was even capable of such a thing. Instead I find I have no choice but to watch it all unfold and hope chance and preparation will save me. I feel like I should be telling everyone I know what little I know about growing tomatoes and beans. I know that is fairly ridiculous. I know it is a combination of fear and a certain desire I have to test my own limits that makes me think about disaster as much as I do. I hope.

Good luck
Rick

PS lost 20 % of my retirement money in the last 2 weeks, how about you guys??

Personal food sovereignty. That is the term I have recently encountered that best describes what we are about here on our little plot. With the shape of the world economy today and the impending contraction of energy world wide it just seems prudent to be able to feed oneself regardless of happenings in far off places. I have recently been looking for what exactly my motivations are with regards to efforts here at the farm. Cost is a hard issue to argue, I could probably earn enough money at a second job to pay for the food we eat rather than attempting to grow it. Also I could probably specialize in one crop and sell the surplus to earn enough to feed us. But either of these approaches require that I rely on conditions that are not sufficiently under my control. Growing food also has conditions that I can not control, Frost, hail, insects, disease, ect. But I can control for those conditions and if I am smart I can mitigate there effect on us. Howeve conditions off the farm I can not control or mitigate so I choose to control what I can and grow my own food.

Current happenings

So lots going on here at the farm. Not as much as during the height of the summer but the days are getting shorter. So I guess there is still the same density of work after all. I have been getting things ready for fall mostly. I am thinking we should have some form of harvest party soon.

Rick

Autumn arives

Fall arrived today and I celebrated with a fire and chopping wood.

Rick

We've got cows.

Yesterday and today I spent the day making repairs around the house patching the holes where the foundation should be in places. That is one of the frustrations of buying an old and distressed property is that you know you will find any number of farmer fixes. Every time I dig in this place I encounter some artifact or other. Usually broken glass and old nails. In the last 2 days I removed an entire wheel barrow full of junk from the vicinity of the foundation. I removed almost more junk than dirt. But the job is finished and I am feeling pretty good about the job.
Jess offered to take me into town for dinner as a reward. On the way into town we encountered a bull standing next to the road. I made Jess turn around and we went up to the house to let them know that they had a bull loose by the road. Nobody was home so Jess and I attempted to herd the bull back into the field using the Vibe. I am pretty sure that is the first time that anyone in these parts has herded cattle from a compact hatchback.The bull decided he wanted nothing to do with the car and jumped back through the electric fence. Just then the home owner came back and we stopped up to tell them what we were doing.
Then we went to dinner, but the bull stayed at home.

Rick

Picalila-Chow

Yesterday Jess and I made a batch of Chow-Chow/ Piccalilli relish. We had a ton of green tomatoes growing on the volunteer tomato plant that came up from the compost I spread earlier in the year. I was inspired by a post on making Chow-Chow over at Musings from a Stonehead. We made it according to a recipe in the Ball Blue Book. I can't recommend that book enough, especial if you don't have a kindly mentor to show you how to can.
We ended up modifying two recipes that were close. We combined the spices found in both chow-chow and piccalilli relish. The recipie was also supposed to make 7 pints but I think we added too many green tomatos because we ended up with 12 pints.

Rick

Chicken salad

Here is one little tip I have found. When I go out to the garden I bring an extra bucket. I fill the bucket with produce for the chickens. Any produce that is damaged and must be eaten soon I put in the bucket. Any dandelions I pull also go in the bucket. I then round out the bucket with a few fresh stalks of Swiss Chard and the occasional Zucchini. I also will add slugs and grasshoppers when I catch them. I bring the bucket up to the chicken yard after I finish in the garden. I find that the chickens really enjoy the treats and I know that no food is being wasted. For my trouble I get great chicken litter for use in compost and eggs as well.

Rick

Rainy weekend.

It has been a rainy cool weekend. We made some spaghetti sauce from our tomatoes and had my mom down for dinner. Jess made the sauce from my grandmothers recipe . We had to make a few adjustments for roasted fresh tomatoes and fresh herbs but it turned out great. We also made another batch of plumb and raspberry sorbet. I increased the sugar a bit and the result was excellent. I added a sprig of mint to the serving and the smell was a nice addition.
I also burned some brush this weekend and brought last years spoiled straw to the garden as mulch.

Rick

Plum Sorbet

Tonight I did a bit of gardening and picked some raspberries and plums from the orchard. I found a plum sorbet recipe online. I made a small batch and man is it good. I used triple sec instead of Grand Marnier. I also added a handful of raspberries and reduced the lemon juice.
The pulp that was left over from the process went into a sauce pan with some more sugar and water. I added some pectin and made a small amount of freezer jam as well. No waste and 2 great products. I am already looking forward to making more plum jam.

Night
Rick

Update

Been working on a number of things lately. Jess and I have replaced a large portion of the siding on the second floor of our house. Also since we had the siding off we decided to do something crazy like adding sheathing and insulation.
In other note the tomato tribbles have begun to colonize the kitchen. Other wise we are eating up our potatoes and garlic with steaks. We didn't grow the steaks...yet.

Rick